I didn't want to tell the Turin doctor about the doppelganger, but as a master of advanced dream realms, she would be able to see through the doppelganger's nature. And after sorting out a very short list of suspects, she will inevitably suspect, or rather be convinced, that is my doppelganger. In that case, it is better to be open and honest here, and to put the relevant matters in the contract. But I didn't expect that something unexpected seemed to be involved.

"That's right, about the 'madness' symptoms you've exhibited before......" she was pondering her choice of words, "have you ever exhibited similar symptoms?" In reality, or in other dreams? ”

"Nope." I answer honestly.

"Well, I think it's likely a symptom of a doppelganger." She said "probably," but the tone bordered on assertion.

"It doesn't make sense. As far as I know, doppelgangers are safe dream technology. I said, "Even if there is a problem, I've tried it in training before and I've never had a problem like it." ”

"But you've never been separated from the doppelganger very far when you're training." She said in a scholarly and calm tone, "Not to mention that under the premise that I and my doppelganger exist at the same time, they are in different dreams." ”

"You mean, being in a different place from the doppelganger triggers symptoms of my mental madness. But isn't it strange? First, the doppelganger is not a technique to divide me in two, but only to create a doppelganger that is independent of me; Second, if there is such a hidden danger, then I should see it in the process of learning relevant materials. I said.

"If the average person uses a doppelganger, they will naturally not encounter this kind of problem. As you said, doppelgangers are safe dream technology. But there are even people in this world who are allergic to eggs, and whether it is safe or not actually depends on the user. She looked at me with a strange look, "For example, if a person with a split personality tendencies uses a doppelganger, it is possible to slowly split themselves in two in the process of using it. But it's rare, so it's normal for you not to know. ”

"You mean, I have a split personality?" I asked rhetorically.

She looked at me without saying a word.

I silently closed my mouth and calmly pondered the possibility of this: she didn't say I really had a split personality. If she really said that, then I would definitely think it was nonsense. But she just said that I had this "tendency". Am I not in this tendency? I have been exposed to some psychological knowledge (let's say, in the Internet age, everyone who has been online for a long time has basically been exposed to more or less psychological knowledge), and I know that if a person plays two highly contrasting roles over the years in his life, he will almost inevitably develop a split personality tendency. In my life, I play the role of a faceling who walks through the bloody wind and a friendly and harmless high school student Xu Fu. If I have split personality tendencies, that's a fair point.

After seeing that I accepted, she continued, "How long did you use the doppelganger this time?" ”

"No more than two hours." I felt like I was a patient.

"You have to recover the doppelganger in less than five hours. But it may be too late, because the time flow of 'dreams within dreams' and 'dreams' may not coincide. I've long since lost control of the small-town nightmare, so I can't compare the difference in the speed of time. You can only look at luck. She has an attitude like a doctor, but she is indeed called Doctor Turin, "From what I have seen, you seem to be more focused on your own 'monster' now, so you used to behave like a monster without words. Then your doppelganger should now focus more on its own 'humanity'. Either is quite a dangerous situation, because neither you nor he have the complete structure that a healthy personality should have, so much so that it loses stability. The slightest change will lead to a loss of control. And without the help of my 'psychoanalysis', he may well have gotten out of control and entered the psychological realm with a very high concentration of human nature. ”

"What are the problems with extremely high concentrations of human nature?" I asked.

"This ...... I do not know. Who can answer what is the essence of human nature? She was silent, "If you want me to give my opinion...... Then, maybe he'll become like a withered believer. ”

"What's the point?" I was puzzled, she had said that Violent was like a withered believer, but I couldn't tell where he looked. It's nothing more than a homicidal maniac, which is very similar.

"The withered believers are not so much seeking death as they are seeking peace." "Violent has always thought of humans as beings who seek happiness," she said. But this perception is wrong. No, at least in my subjective opinion, it is wrong. Human beings should be creatures who seek peace of mind. ”

"What's the difference between happiness and peace of mind?" I asked.

She gave a different but still personal answer, "Happiness is 'picking up', and peace of mind is 'letting go'." ”

Pick it up, put it down. It actually sounds a bit Buddhist.

Before you know it, the topic seems to have entered the realm of "feet off the ground". I decided to bring the conversation back to something more pragmatic, "I have something to tell you. ”

"Please." She asked solemnly.

"If I recycle the doppelganger after that, I'm likely to be weaker than I am now." I say.

She looked at my face carefully, or rather at my mask, "How much weaker?" ”

"How much strength advantage I had over Violent before, how much strength advantage Violent will have over me after that." I said, "And he can fly." ”

"That's pretty bad...... she thought.

After a moment, she asked, "Under those conditions, do you have a way to slash violently?" At least one knife, even if it's a scrape. ”

"You can give it a try." I'm not sure that the next time he fights Violent Fierce, he'll be more cautious than last time, "What's your method?" Do you attach poison to the blade? "Considering she's a doctor, she might also have studied toxins.

"That's right, it's a toxin." She unraveled the mystery, "The poison of the curse, extracted from the flesh of the living dead, to be exact." Originally, psionics were able to fight against this toxin, but if the concentration was increased to an extremely high level, even psionics would be hit. ”

"I see." I nodded, "If it's the poison of the living dead, it can even infect his real body." Is that so? ”

"No...... A dream technologist like him, even if he is poisoned by the living dead in his dreams, it is likely that he will be able to keep the poison in his dreams while waking up in reality. "So it's not just about poisoning him, it's about letting him die in a dream poison." ”

When I heard this, a question arose in my mind. But I put that question down for a moment and moved on to another question, "Dead?" Isn't it the living dead? ”

"The essence of the poison of the living dead is a curse, that is, the power of death. In other words, the psionic power of despair. Throwing it into the body of a psionic person like Violent and me will cause the psionic energy to spiral out of control and lead to death. She explained.

After that, we discussed some details of the contract, mainly to prevent sudden mutiny between the two parties in the process of cooperation.

Then he took the contract item and officially read the contents of the contract to the Forgotten Moon in the distance. Nothing came out of the light, but the Moon of Oblivion Oath didn't have that many bells and whistles. When I was done, I was ready to cut off the head of the Turin doctor in order to meet the conditions for getting out of the dream within a dream.

She turned her back silently, and suddenly turned back to me and said, "About your doppelganger......

"How?" I asked.

"Even if he shows the intention of returning on his own initiative, don't let him return on his own initiative." "It was important to bring him back in the form of ending his life," she said. ”

"Then I won't be able to see his memories." I say. This is the only difference between the two regression methods.

"His psychology is likely to be far more chaotic than you are at this time." She said, "It's best not to let his mind into your inner world." ”

I nodded, and said I heard it, but whether to do it or not was a question for me.

She turned her head back, knelt on the ground like a condemned prisoner, and clasped her hands in front of her as if in prayer. Maybe even she was afraid of being killed in her dreams, but I would kill her faster than she could feel. She faced me with the back of her neck, which was the perfect position for me to get my hands on.

The Great Moon of Oblivion slowly sank in the sky, silvery light filling the town.

I stood on the roof of the vault and raised my rusty machete in my hand to her as she waited silently for death.

In the next second, the blade swung down with the sound of the wind.

*

After the death of the Turin doctor, I also got out of the dream within a dream.

No, it's not so much that it's out of the dream within the dream, but that the dream within the dream has evaporated entirely. It was a dream made by the Doctor of Turin, which naturally evaporated from her death, and I was sucked back by the body that existed in the nightmare of the town. When I woke up, I reflexively discerned my surroundings and found myself still in my closet.

And I still wore that short-beaked beak mask, that black ragged cloak, and that rusty machete.

I pushed open the cabinet door and walked out.

Although there was no lighting around, I was able to tell by my vision in the dark that it was still the Turin doctor's room. And unlike the dream within a dream, it is quite tidy and the beds are in good condition. There's no mistake, I'm back in a small-town nightmare. But oddly enough, the Turin doctor was not on that bed.

Is it because she woke up before me, so she went to prepare the poison of the living dead first?

Suddenly, there was a slight movement in the corner of the room.

It sounds like the sound of a match grinding and burning. I thought so and turned my head to look. I saw my doppelganger, Xu Fu, standing in the corner of the room. Without saying a word, he lit the candle on the corner menorah with a burning match. I didn't know anything until he made a sound. I looked around the room again, and there were really no more people here.

Xu Fu threw the match into the trash, then picked up the log cane placed next to him and smiled at me.

But the smile was short-lived, and he regrouped his expression and staggered towards me.

"How long has it been here?" I asked.

"It's been seventy-two hours." His answer made my heart sink, but he said, "But it's not too late." ”

I looked at him puzzled, while he looked at me quietly with his intact left eye.

Silence dominates this small space. In the eye to eye, I realized very strongly that Xu Fu in front of me was indeed an independent individual.

Suddenly, he let go of his right hand, which was pressing the cane, and it fell to the ground. Then he took out a short knife from his bosom that had come out of nowhere, looked up again, and looked at me. Could it be that he wants to use this thing to fight me?

"How so?" He shook his head.

With that, he slammed his knife into his heart.